A “no” uttered from the deepest conviction is better and greater than a “yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Some people mistake weakness for tact. If they are silent when they ought to speak and so feign an agreement they do not feel, they call it being tactful. Cowardice would be a much better name. Tact is an active quality that is not exercised by merely making a dash for cover. Be sure, when you think you are being extremely tactful, that you are not in reality running away from something you ought to face. — Sir Frank Medlicott Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others. — Winston Churchill

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. — Winston Churchill The dilemma … is between the democratic process of the market in which every individual has his share and the exclusive rule of a dictatorial body. Whatever people do in the market economy is the execution of their own plans. In this sense every human action means planning. What those calling themselves planners advocate is not the substitution of planned action for letting things go. It is the substitution of the planner’s own plan for the plans of his fellowmen. The planner is a potential dictator who wants to deprive all other people of the power to plan and act according to their own plans. He aims at one thing only: the exclusive absolute preeminence of his own plan. — Ludwig von Mises What can prevent the coming of totalitarian socialism is only a thorough change in ideologies. What we need...

The free market is the only mechanism that has ever been discovered for achieving participatory democracy. — Milton Friedman, Introduction to the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of The Road to Serfdom Democracy can’t work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that’s all there is – so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group. — Robert A. Heinlein Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom; socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. — Alexis de Tocqueville, Discours pronounce a l’assemblee constituante le 12 septembre...

Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws — Martin Luther King Jr. I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace, two men are called a Law Firm, and three or more are called a Congress. — John Adams Every law is an evil for every law is an infraction of liberty — Jeremy Bentham The law of self-preservation is higher than written law. — Thomas Jefferson It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge’s view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience — John Adams The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of it’s enactment, and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law,...

..arms…discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. …Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them. — Thomas Paine. Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don’t have a gun, freedom of speech has no power. — Yoshimi Ishikawa The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege. — Arkansas he tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state...

Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice. — Thomas Paine Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions. — Aristotle The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing — Thomas Jefferson I have often thought that morality may perhaps consist solely in the courage of making a choice. — Leon Blum There is … only one categorical imperative. Is is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that is should become a universal law. — Immanuel Kant Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. — Albert Einstein Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison....